Elections: Political Party Spending

Question

14:36:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to regulate spending by political parties on elections further, including by applying a national expenditure limit every year, not just in the year before a general election, or by lowering the national expenditure limit.

My Lords, robust party spending and reporting rules are already in place. The Government do not have current plans to review the spending limits, but we are committed to maintaining the level playing field and the integrity of elections. In line with our manifesto commitment, our focus is on safeguarding our democracy by strengthening the regulations on political party donations. We plan to set out further details on that in our strategy for elections, which we expect to publish this summer.

My Lords, last week Elon Musk claimed that, without his $300 million donation, Trump would have lost the election. Does the Minister accept that democracy in this country should not be for sale and that millions of votes should count for more than millions of pounds? Given their commitment to a level playing field, will the Government act to bring in a cap on the size of donations that can be made to parties? Will they reverse the 80% increase in national spending limits brought in by the previous Conservative Government and opposed by Labour when in opposition? Will they introduce spending limits that apply every year, not just in the year before an election?

My Lords, many things are said on social media, including by Elon Musk, and I am aware that he is a prolific user of his own platform. There has been much discussion of his words and their impact; I do not want to dignify them with any further reaction in this Chamber. On the capping of donations, those who participate in electoral campaigns must also follow the donation and spending rules set out in law. It is the responsibility of those receiving political donations to take steps to ensure they are permissible, and we will take any necessary steps to ensure those requirements are tightened and abided by. There is no current priority on capping donations, but we are very keen on strengthening the rules around how donations work.

My Lords, I welcome both the Minister’s initial Answer and her reply to the noble Lord, Lord Rennard. She will be aware that Reform, in announcing its policy on DOGE, said that it would cost the ordinary voter nothing because the expertise would be provided for free. That surely constitutes a donation of some form or another. On Saturday, Aubrey Allegretti reported in the Times that the head of DOGE in Kent had said that they had “hired up to a dozen people, including forensic accountants” and data scientists. Does the Minister agree that this either constitutes a donation, which should be looked at by the Electoral Commission, or, more likely, is a cost to the voters of Kent County Council of which they were not aware when they cast their votes only a few weeks ago?

The noble Lord makes a very important point, and, like many others, I have heard a lot about DOGE in Kent. Local government funding is incredibly complex and, if what I have seen in the press is true, it is very important that anyone looking into this has a very detailed understanding of the subject. We have our own regulatory bodies, including CIPFA, which do great work in that area. On breaches of donations, the rules are a matter for the Electoral Commission or the police. The Electoral Commission already has the power to investigate and to impose civil penalties where it is satisfied there has been a breach. As part of our commitment to strengthening the rules on donations, which, very importantly, include donations in kind, we are also reviewing whether any changes are required to the role and powers of the regulator to make sure that rules across the political finance framework are effectively enforced.

My Lords, what plans does my noble friend the Minister have to tighten the rules on foreign donations to ensure that donations are made only from profits generated in the United Kingdom?

My noble friend makes a very important point, one that we have discussed in the Chamber before. I can assure her that the Government take the threat posed by disinformation and foreign actors interfering in our democratic processes very seriously. It is and always will be an absolute priority to protect the UK against foreign interference. While it is clear that foreign donations to political parties are not permitted, the Government recognise the risk posed by malign actors who seek to interfere with and undermine our democratic processes, which is why we will take all necessary steps to ensure that effective controls are in place to safeguard our democratic processes. As I said before, we plan to provide further details on our election strategy in the summer.

My Lords, I welcome the Minister’s undertaking to publish a strategy for electoral finance regulation. In so doing, may I encourage her to revisit the report by the Committee on Standards in Public Life, of which my colleague, the noble Baroness, Lady Ramsey, was also a member at the time? We worked on the basis of evidence and had cross-party support for the various recommendations we made. Regrettably, the Government of the time decided to accept none of them, so this is an opportunity for the current Government to put right that error.

As the work is being done to consider what needs to be in the electoral strategy, there have been a number of recent reports on elections and how they work. All the work done will be considered as we pull together the election strategy.

My Lords, in her answer to the Question from the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, and the Michael Brown memorial question, the Minister referred to a strategy document that is being produced before the Summer Recess, but as of yet there has been no engagement with any other political party on this document. The last Conservative Government consulted the parliamentary parties panel, but the Labour Government have yet to do this. Will she commit so to do? I declare my interest as a treasurer of the Conservative Party.

The noble Lord is right that all political parties must be engaged in any consultation. The idea is to produce a draft strategy based on the reports that have been produced so far and then have an extensive consultation on that. I will reply to the noble Lord in writing if that is different.

My Lords, I have to take the Question on money flowing into British politics further. In the Russia report, we had some information on Russian money flowing primarily into the Conservative Party and associated organisations. We now have American money from extremely reactionary groups within the United States—not the American state—flowing into a range of third-party campaigns and potentially through unincorporated associations to political parties. What are the Government going to do to monitor that and make it transparent to regulators?

I agree with the noble Lord that this is a very important area. There are strict rules relating to unincorporated associations and the political contributions they make, including transparency requirements when making significant political donations. Currently, donations from unincorporated associations make up some 4.6% of the value of all reported permissible donations, but there is a risk there and it is very important that we take it seriously. As already stated, our department is developing policy proposals to meet manifesto commitments. As part of this, we are exploring recommendations from key stakeholders, including many that were made relating to unincorporated associations.

My Lords, during the passage of the National Security Bill, the last Conservative Government gave a commitment to this House to introduce voter information-sharing powers between relevant agencies and with political parties to help identify irregular sources of money. Why have the Labour Government done nothing to deliver on this sensible proposal? Is it not in the Labour Party’s best interests that it is given the heads-up, if it is taking money yet again from Chinese spies?

I do not think it at all helpful, when we are discussing an important issue concerning electoral law, to be throwing around political accusations about where the money has come from, because all parties have evidence of what other parties have done. We have to treat this issue with the seriousness it deserves, and we have to work on what our strategy is. Information-sharing is, of course, a very important part of what we are doing. I can assure the noble Baroness that, when we come to the strategy in the summer, information-sharing will play a key role in that.